I never read Jonathan Tropper’s This is Where I Leave You, probably because I’m always getting my contemporary New York novelists named “Jonathan” mixed up (my favorites are Ames followed by Lethem!). Now I guess I won’t have to, because it has been turned into a Major Motion Picture, with a screenplay adapted by Tropper himself, directed by Shawn Levy, starring Tina Fey, Jason Bateman, Adam Driver, Corey Stoll, Rose Byrne, and Jane Fonda. Great cast, though it looks more or less like your standard tryin-to-hold-the-family-together dramedy, and it will be interesting to see how that works when it’s being directed by the guy who did Real Steel and The Internship. Maybe he’ll be more successful at the indie dramedy than the Vince Vaughn-com? He’s certainly got the ripping-off-Eternal-Sunshine part down:

Did you miss it?

Warner

He could’ve ripped off a lot of shots. Pretty ballsy ripping off the one that’s on the cover of the DVD.

Universal

Don’t worry, there’s also a “cathartic moment in the water” scene.

Warner

This Is Where I Leave You opens September 12th. Though I have this strange feeling as if I’ve already seen it.

have read the book which is quite funny actually, this sadly looks less so. they’ve also changed the family last name from Foxman to Altman for reasons I don’t understand (is Altman less jewish sounding? no clue who should be offended here). And yes, in the book they are sitting Shiva not “grounded”. also a fun and possibly irrelevant fact – original casting speculation for this movie had leslie mann in tina fey’s role, goldie hawn in jane fonda’s and zac efron in adam driver’s.

Holy rip off, Batman! It’s like those god awful Friedberg/Seltzer spoof movies, where they cram scene after scene of every other movie on top of each other like a frat house gang rape… but in this case leave out all the so called spoof.

I’m torn. The book was so impossibly smug that it couldn’t stop elbowing you in the ribs saying HA AREN’T I CLEVER AND HILARIOUS? I BET YOU WANT TO COMPARE ME TO JONATHAN FRANZEN but this is a bunch of people I’d really like to see in a movie.